HKFP reports on an intimidation campaign against Hong Kong news media workers…
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said in a statement on Friday that since June, dozens of journalists have received emails and letters with defamatory content to their home addresses, workplaces and other venues. The journalists targeted included those from Hong Kong Free Press, InMedia, HK Feature, and those who are members of the HKJA’s executive committee.
Fifteen journalists saw complaints sent to family members, landlords, employers and organisations they are associated with, the HKJA said. Some of the complaints threatened recipients that if they continued to associate with the journalists, they could be breaching national security laws.
AP adds…
…posts on Facebook targeting at least 36 journalists called their articles inflammatory and described legitimate reporting as problematic or illegal, the group said. Violent online threats were also made against some journalists and members of the association’s executive committee, it said.
[HKJA chair Selina Cheng] said they did not find any evidence that the harassment was directly linked to the city’s authorities. Several people who were targeted have reported their cases to the police or the privacy commissioner’s office, she said. But the journalists organization was concerned about potential data leaks from the government because some information used cannot be easily obtained under normal circumstances.
HKJA press statement…
Since June, self-proclaimed “patriots” have sent anonymous complaints by email or letter to at least 15 journalists’ family members, and their family members’ employers, landlords and related organisations, including charities, schools and private businesses. Multiple “complaint letters” were sent from Microsoft Outlook.com mailboxes.
The format of each email or letter is similar, but tailored to the different identities and characteristics of a given organisation or individual. For example, letters sent to a school took the role of concerned parent, while media organisations received letters ostensibly from readers or viewers. Larger businesses and organisations received letters in English, written in respectful, quasi-legalistic language, though often containing false and defamatory content; letters sent to smaller organisations were made to look like ransom letters, with threatening words and photos of journalists attached.
Government officials say law enforcement will take the intimidation seriously. More seriously, hopefully, than if you complain about illegal parking. Here’s a video of a cop freaking out with gratuitous cantankerousness after Transit Jam reminds him that cars are blocking the pedestrian crossing. TJ – whose little kid is looking on – is wrestled to the ground, taken to the police station, and released hours later. The story starts here.
HKFP op-ed on the chilling effect of the Stand News case…
We are often told that publications merely have to obey the law, which is well known and perfectly clear. Oh yes? Yet in the Stand News case, Judge Kwok Wai-kin acknowledged that in an earlier judgment on the “sheep village” books he had said that sedition must involve intentionally inciting others. He has now changed his mind, and the offence requires mere “recklessness of the consequences.” So all you suckers who perused the earlier judgment in the hope of finding out exactly what the law was were wasting your time.
In fact, if you are interested, even perusing the law itself is not much help. Traditionally it was supposed that seditious content must be so extreme as possibly to inspire violence. If violence was not implicitly advocated there was no sedition. This condition has apparently lapsed. It is in any case specifically excluded by the relevant part of the [March 2024 Article 23] Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, where the revised law on sedition now resides.
Is anyone surprised? This is HONG KONG, after all. Not Taipei or Tokyo.
Anyone employed in the “press” in HK should be aware they are a targeted class with a fast approaching expiry date…not a service to the People or a check on authority.
Good thing the government is doing all it can to ensure the world knows HK is “open for business”.
I wonder how those expats at the Ali Baba rag still sleep at night.
I still remember that brutal chopper attack in 2014 against Kevin Lau Chun-to. The clowns in government weren’t very helpful then despite that “They can’t kill us all” protest campaign and they will be even less helpful today in reining in their rabid mouth frothing full retard patriots.
To be fair, the freakout copper in the video is still MUCH more preferable to ANY kind of treatment you’d get by the Gestapopo in good old rule-of-law US of A. Just Google “Tyreek Hill traffic stop”.
@Chinese Netizen
Sure, just google Yuen Long attack 2019.
I don’t understand why a certain type of person refers to maniacal US cops, but not the Gestapo, Stasi or any other (more relevant, dramatic, and accurate) example of oppressive policing. It’s like neither their horizons nor their memories extend beyond whatever editorial the Rénmín Rìbào’ most-recently disgorged.
Old cop with one stripe. Passed over and not going anywhere. And then he’s reminded why.
@Chinese Netizen,
Two wrongs do not make a right.
And comparing Hong Kong policing to the USA is as tedious as it is disingenuous
Chinese Netizen: I was firm and polite (and, as I hope goes without saying, sober and reasonable). I had my kids with me. In NO WAY did my complaint to the cops about them allowing drivers to illegally block the pedestrian crossing warrant being wrestled to the ground in an arm lock in front of my screaming kids. That is not shown in the video, BTW, as I had stopped recording and I think he was waiting for that. But the treatment was arguably as rough as that Tyreek Hill traffic stop. Still got sore legs and arms today, and my eight-year-old daughter yesterday told me it was “the worst day of her life”, seeing me thrown to the ground by an angry cop like that. (This is where the wumao jump in with “wow if that’s the worst day of her life she’s so lucky”, which I will ignore).
I was held after that for FIVE HOURS in a cell with no-one telling me anything. And then questioned for three hours (how many ways to say “I have nothing to say”), and now facing a charge of public disorder. Total bullshit.
So, please, pretty please, give over with your failed attempts to say US policing is worse.
@JamesO: First of all, apologies to you as I only saw the first video of said Gestapopo yelling and screaming himself into a tizzy. No one…average schmuck, pro athlete or even thug should be abused in a place that considers itself civilised and lawful (unless use of force is necessary and even then there’s a difference from abuse).
Couldn’t read the second link due to this message when I clicked on it: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.” (No, I do not have a Twatter/X account and never will).
It takes a special type of individual to actually want to be a copper these days and I’m inclined to believe he/she has a sadistic streak mixed in with a lot of grievances and power issues. Steroids in some cases might be a factor in aggressiveness. Very low on the reasons, I believe, is “helping my community become a better place”.
I believe you are known around the HK copper circles and will probably be a target for harassment the rest of your days in HK. Being a Gweilo doesn’t help your predicament.
And…*are* my attempts to say US policing is worse a failure? I don’t know but with the amount of cop related murders in the USA and regular examples of abuse, I’ll stick with my point. You’re probably still feeling the effects of adrenaline and anger. Sorry your kids had to be traumatized like that!
@Chinese Netizen
Cops are generally pieces of shit world wide, but at least in the US the press can report on police brutality more freely. There’s really no reason to compare HK police with US, it’s such a wumao move and seems out of character. Though I’ve also had my moments of going out of character so it happens.
@JamesO I’m sorry you and your daughter had to go through that.
I have way more respect for the work you do, most of it unpaid and voluntary, than any of these wig wearing clowns that call themselves jurists, particularly guys like Lord Neuberger who are paid a princely sum to trample all over Hong Konger’s human rights.
And I said it before, but my respect for judges (not to mention for police) has gone way down but my respect for journalists, local and expat, has gone way up and James does an amazing job as a journalist and deserves respect. Sadly journalists are the ones that tend to be abused the most by these totalitarian regimes while guys like Lord Neuberger get VIP treatment.
@ Chinese Netizen.
Your continual practice of linking every act that happens in HK with acts in the US is boring and tiresome.
And for the record the milionaire Football player was speeding in his sports car,was pulled over,was not wearing a seatbelt and refused to lower his tinted window so the cops could see inside.
But you stick up for him,he also has been convicted for assault,batterry and choking a young woman previously.
What a role model.
Lock ’em up. It’s the only language these people understand.
Tyreek Hill is a gifted athlete but not a bright person.
African-Americans are always going on about having “The Talk” with their young sons about how to behave when interacting with the police as if it is a dramatic, life-altering moment unique to their race. It is not. Good parents of all backgrounds tell their children, when encountering police be polite, follow lawful instructions and, above all, show the officers respect. That’s how to avoid escalating the situation. If you’ve got a problem, take it up with the judge later.
Mr Hill was speeding, not wearing a seat belt, told the officer dismissively, “just give me my ticket”, rolled up his tinted window and then twice refused lawful instructions to lower it. By doing so, Mr Hill escalated the situation, perhaps assuming his black privilege would protect him. He was wrong.
@Sam Bronfman
Fuck the police. And they do target African-Americans more than Caucasians and East Asians. There is institutional racism happening. Deny it all you want, it’s clearly happening.
And hey I can’t blame Mr Hill for hating the police and even being disrespectful to them. They are nothing more than thugs with a badge. Good boys don’t become police is a universal truth.
Take your lecturing to Republicans Abroad, for some reason a bunch of dudes who want small government love the police. As an ex-Libertarian (ex because I am disgusted with the US Libertarian Party being filled with pedophiles and Russian stooges), I never understood that as police are literally agents of the state.
“they do target African-Americans more than Caucasians and East Asians.”
Of course they do. African Americans are responsible for more than half of USA murders, despite being only 13% of the population. The leading cause of death for young African American men is other young African American men.
Thus it makes perfect statistical sense for the police to a) target them more and b) be very wary in dealing with them.